A Comparative Study on Value Tendency of University Students: An International Perspective

Abstract

Today, the academic curriculum of any educational institution cannot stand apart from the formation of human values. “Value‘ is a subjective concept that forms the basis of the private reasons on which individuals make choices between the available alternatives in their lives. In many countries, there exists a serious debate about how students acquire their values. In this regard, values are the decisive elements affecting the behaviour of individuals, thus, studies on people's value tendencies are important. This study aimed to identify and rank the importance given by students, in two different countries, to the values stated in the classification scales created by Rokeach and Schwartz. The study was carried out in the education departments of three universities: Kaunas University of Applied Sciences in Lithuania, and Aksaray University and Kahramanmaraş Sütçü İmam University, both of which are in Turkey. In order to determine the level of importance given to the values by the pre-service trainee teachers, a Likert-type scale, consisting of 78 items, was used. The value scales of Rokeach and Schwartz were used as a basis for constructing the instrument for the identification and ranking of values. In addition, some universal and national value items were added to these classifications.

A Study on Turkish and Lithuanian Young Adults’ Perception of Values

“…The respondent selection was performed while conducting a study in two countries, Turkey and Lithuania. In the study, Öcal, Kyburiene, and Yiğittir (2012) presented 1,020 university students with 78 value statements and asked them about the level of importance of each value statement. Two value statements (family and social justice) from that study that were most emphasized by the students and one value statement (freedom) that demonstrates significant differences in the data from both countries were determined.…”

Are dimensions of gender inequality uniformly associated with human values?

“…Instead, greater gender equality at country level is associated with ecological footprints (Dietz, Kalof, & Stern, 2002;McKinney & Fulkerson, 2015), job satisfaction (Mencarini & Sironi, 2010) and general well-being (Bjørnskov, Dreher, & Fischer, 2008;Fischer, Bjørnskov, & Dreher, 2007). These characteristics are known to be linked to the system of human values identified by Schwartz (1992Schwartz ( , 2006Schwartz ( , 2007b, that is, they influence the importance that individuals attach to each value (Arciniega & González, 2005;Arikan & Bloom, 2015;Dietz et al, 2002;Inglehart, Basanez, & Moreno, 1998;Öcal, Kyburiene, & Yiğittir, 2012;Yeganeh & May, 2011). Gender inequality has also been associated with the human value system (Schwartz & Rubel-Lifschitz, 2009).…”